The Federal Government would soon disengage 500,000 Nigerians engaged in the NPower scheme, odunews.com reports.
This was made known in a statement signed by the Spokesperson for the humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development ministry, Rhoda Iliya.
Iliya said that the current beneficiaries have overstayed in the programme “thereby denying other Nigerians an opportunity to access the programme and gain skills for entrepreneurship and employment.”
The programme has so far enrolled 500,000 beneficiaries with 200,000 persons from the Batch A which started in September 2016 and 300,000 from Batch B which kicked off in August 2018.
According to reports, that the beneficiaries were supposed to spend 24 months on the programme but Batch A beneficiaries have spent over 40 months.
The Guardian quoted Salisu Na’inna Danbatta, Special adviser on media to the Humanitarian Minister Sadiya Farouq, to have said that “Both Batches will soon be terminated according to the (press) release for the reasons given in the (press) release,”
The impending sack of the NPower beneficiaries would add to the high rate of unemployment in the country. The current unemployment rate stands at 23.1% although the Labour Minister, Chris Ngige, has predicted that the figure could rise to 33.5% this year.
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